could this qualify as a fan essay?

[araine.livejournal.com]

This was going to include Rirhath (and by virtue the greater galactic society?) and Demisiv, but considering Wellakh probably wins the prize for being the most complicated planet in the YW universe (at least, that we have sufficient information about. I’m sure that there are many other, much more complicated planets, which we know nothing about.), I left it at this. Maybe I’ll explore greater galactic society more at a later date (like, after AWoM, which could completely contradict me, I have not read it yet).

Because thinking about social structures and institutions and how it all works together is one of those things that I think is interesting (aka, I’m planning to take sociology as my college minor), I thought that I might try a little thought experiment, and take the data that we do have to extrapolate on how other things on Wellakh might work, at least on a very basic, speculative level. I’ve broken it down into the five basic sociological institutions (as given to me by my sociology textbook, though this does not mean that there aren’t other subcategories or even that Wellakh might have more important social institutions by nature of it being an alien planet), but I took out the two that I had the least information about (Religion/Belief Systems and Education), because this post is a monster as is, and would be unmanageable in any other case.

FAMILY:

We know a couple of things about family. One, that they’re monogamous (the use of “unionbond” as a term seems to connote monogamy, as “union” and “marriage” are close to synonymous. This could possibly be because of Dairine’s (and our) social biases, but without further data I’m going to assume monogamy.) It also seems that wives take the “family name”, prefixed by “dev il-“, as in the case of Miril am Miril dev il Nuiiliat.

We also know that children appear to be raised by their parents (Roshaun appears to have been raised by Nelaid and Miril), and that this probably lasts until a certain state of maturity. (I’d say that this is around Roshaun’s age, if not younger. Considering Nelaid thought him fit to rule and make his own independent decisions, he is probably “of age”).

As far as average size of a family, I’m not sure. It depends on a lot of factors (such as death rates, allocation of resources, quality of health care, life expectancy, the age of sexual maturity, average age of marriage, etc. etc. etc.) The only one of these factors that I can say for sure is that the number of offspring produced at birth is one or possibly two, considering Roshaun is an only child.

As for the family of Guarantors (or, well, two families according to the Errantry Wiki), I can guess at size, and I’d say that that is large. Considering the prevalence of assassination as a means to deal with Guarantors the people dislike, it makes sense to have a lot of children, if only to keep the power structure stable. Roshaun being an only child does not seem to fit this logic (there may be other factors that play into this, though, and there is nothing saying that he has always been an only child), but I’d guess that he has a whole lot of cousins and other more distant family members. I would also guess that a large percentage of them are wizards, because a) wizardry apparently runs in the family line and b) there is likely a lot of pressure put on children in the family to become wizards and keep a Guarantor on the throne.

There’s also a lot of information that we can gather from the long list of names that Roshaun and his family carry. (Though this subject alone can occasionally make me headdesk, especially when trying to reconcile with the “translations” given in WH). From the structure of the names, it looks like sons descend from the line of father’s - Roshaun ke Nelaid(and etc.) is the son of Nelaid ke Seriv, who is likely the son of Seriv ke Teliuvye, etc. Daughters is a little fuzzier, but unless Miril is a unisex name, it’s likely that Miril am Miril was named for her mother. Where this gets sticky is when Roshaun gives Dairine’s title as Dhairine ke Khallahan – I’d guess that he used “ke Khallahan” either because Dairine’s culture uses last names or because he didn’t know her mother’s given name, but I have no answers for why he did not use the “am” modifier, which seems to be feminine, or the “dev il” or “am det” prefixes which seem to denote family name. Perhaps these prefixes are unique to the royal families and unused for the other families? (Although they have the am’mestardet Wellakhir” for the formal version of the name, so maybe not) Perhaps “am” is only used for married women? Maybe it’s because Dairine is the “acting agent” for Earth, therefore she gets promoted to “ke”, on equal footing with the “acting agents” of Wellakh? I have no answers.

Regardless, the long list of names appears to come from a family line (the “long version” of the name I’d guess is that which contains all of the “son of the Sunlord, beloved of the Sunlord” translations of Roshaun’s name, because while I’d buy Nelaid being synonymous with Sunlord at the time of the introduction of Roshaun’s name, I don’t buy “am Seriv” meaning “beloved of the Sunlord”, considering, by the parameters of the names, it’s Nelaid’s father’s given name) – the “ke/am …” working like a patronymic or matronymic suffix, and the “am det/dev il …” working as a family name. I would guess that the common people of Wellakh use either one or both of these, though, unlikely to be in such excess as the Nuiiliat line. Miril, after all, uses only one (matronymic?) suffix and the Nuiiliat family name (though this could possibly be due to gender, I doubt that. I‘d guess it’s because she’s not from the line of kings).

Wellakh is likely something of a patriarchal society, considering Roshaun was Nelaid’s heir (though this could simply be coincidence of birth), and considering that Miril took the Nuiiliat family name, though this could also be because the Nuiiliat family is the royal line, and therefore “married into” the name of the more powerful family, and/or that she did not have a “family name” of her own, the Nuiiliat family being the only family to use it, and added it to signify her entrance into the royal family.) Compared to earth’s dominant societies, however, I’d say that they are more egalitarian, as Miril, according to the Errantry Wiki, is the most senior of the Wellakh’s secondary wizardly line.

GOVERNMENT

We know that what the Sunlord says is law, and that this title is passed on within the Nuiiliat line, not unlike an earth monarchy. Of course, there’s plenty else to explore.

Miril herself appears to have plenty of political clout, though if this is official power or simply behind-the-scenes power is questionable. She does have a lot of fancy titles, and is subject to assassination attempts. Perhaps she does have some official power? What kind of power would this be? Or maybe it’s just because she’s a wizard. Hmmmm. Perhaps she would take over in the event of Nelaid’s death, had he not abdicated to Roshaun. Perhaps she handles ceremonial affairs, or sits in on the lawmaking process, or maybe she actually makes policy. Maybe her only sphere of influence is her husband and son.

There is also the distinct possibility of different levels of government. Ruling an entire planet would be absolutely impossible without delegation. Of course, how many different levels are there? How much work actually goes to the Sunlord? How much is the Sunlord advised by the lower levels of government? Does the Sunlord have advisors? (It would make sense. One person making all of the decisions themselves would likely get into trouble quickly.) Are they family (who would be trusted), or are they from the citizenry?

And that’s not even getting into Wellakh’s political atmosphere before Thathit’s flare. (Which we can also speculate about.)

I’d guess that Wellakh was both gate capable and astahfrith and also globalized before Thahit’s flare. The transition of Nuiiliat family from family of wizards to family of wizards and kings would move a lot smoother if the people already knew about wizardry, as well as the fact that a wizardly family even existed, and the transition to the Nuiiliat family ruling an entire planet would have been made smoother if the planet was globalized. Though it’s a possibility that Wellakh was in fact sevarfrith and that the flare revealed wizardry to the population at large, it makes more sense to be gate-capable and astahfrith than gate capable and sevarfrith. If the planet was in fact globalized, then it probably was a product of becoming gate-capable and interacting with different political entities around the galaxy, requiring Wellakh’s planetwide government structure to merge and organize to keep up with the other planets.

I say that Wellakh was gate capable because a) their technology is astoundingly advanced for a planet that was brought to its knees within relatively recent history (therefore, previous contact with other alien cultures likely helped them.) This status could also lead to b) Wellakh’s general attitude toward aliens (as experienced by Dairine) as outsiders and unwelcome. The Wellakhit people obviously know about aliens, enough that seeing one does not confuse them so much as make them hostile. This hostility, I’m postulating, came from the culture right after the flare when it’s possible that aid from alien planets did not appear or did not appear for a long time, and cementing in younger generations.

After the flare, they are still astahfrith (though, possibly, under a very different type of restriction, as explored above), and most likely still gate capable (though, considering the general attitude toward aliens, the number of travelers off world is probably almost limited to wizards.)

We can only guess blindly at what political factions exist, though there is probably a spectrum that includes both radicals and people who are more middle-ground. Most of the assassination attempts, I’d guess, come from one radical group or another. How much political clout these different interest groups might have is unknown, however, and probably varies from group to group.

ECONOMICS

Wellakh’s economics are one of those things which are also uncertain. We can’t exactly draw from the “royal family”, as their wealth likely far exceeds that of the average citizen. But how do the economics function?

By the fact that Wellakh seems to be past “space age” (in fact, it’s probably safe to call them a “gate capable” society), I’d say that they probably have a number of “First World” institutions to draw from, as well as accessible technology for a large part of the population. How much of the population would be determined by the distribution of wealth, which I don’t think that we can say much about.

Of course, Thahit’s flare has to have had an effect on the global economy, as many resources that must have once been on one side of the planet were probably lost. The Sunside does not seem to be fertile, so depending on where agriculture was centered and what kind of agriculture was centered there, there was likely a great shift. From what we have seen described of the Sunside, it does not seem very hospitable to agriculture, with a large portion of it being blasted away. It might be a great source of mineral mining, however(I am not sure how landscape being melted to slag might effect the mineral content). It’s possible that mineral mining is actually a large industry on Wellakh.

As far as trade goes, it once again depends on how the economy is set up. But considering that Wellakh is most likely a gate capable society, there is the possibility of trade with other planets. Wellakh seems pretty closed off to aliens of all types, but it’s still possible that they might engage in trade with other alien cultures, while still viewing them as “outsiders”. If mineral mining was in fact a very large industry, it would fit in nicely as a way for Wellakh to get needed resources from other planets as well as export resources.

I will submit, just as a last idea, that wizardry is likely not relegated to the two wizardly families alone. It seems to me that the Powers would not waste potential wizards by only offering wizardry to two family lines. However, because of the hostile air surrounding wizardry, many potential wizards decide against taking the Oath. Those who do take it likely end up hiding it from friends and family, or friends and family hide it from strangers (despite Wellakh’s astahfrith status), and, as wizardry does not live in the unwilling heart, many of them likely end up losing it whether they hide it or not. (Though, I could be completely, ballistically wrong on this count too. It’s just my theory.)

So, what do you guys think? Am I a nutter on all counts? What do you think about Wellakh’s social structure, and how it might play out in greater galactic politics and society. What about the two that I left out (religion/belief systems and education)? (I would be totally stoked to discuss these things too, and in fact have saved what I originally wrote on the topics.) I don’t know, this is just stuff that I think about (way too much for my own good), so feel free to engage on one or all of these topics.

Comments

[readingredhead.livejournal.com]

You're not a nutter -- or if you are, then so am I, because I find stuff like this fascinating. :)

I think another argument for Wellakh having been gate-capable and astahfrith before the flare is that the text somewhere (I don't have any books with me so I can't actually reference) states that the sunside was able to be evacuated prior to the flare. Evacuating an entire hemisphere of a planet is a LOT of work if you can't worldgate your people places, and unless the population density of Wellakh was very low (which wouldn't chime well with the idea that it was a globalized society pre-flare), it would be difficult to accommodate ALL of the evacuated peoples on the non-sunside of the planet during the flare and its aftermath. At least some of them were probably saved by being sent off-planet.

As for the economics of the sunside -- I might just be making it up, but are we ever told that it used to be quite green? That would lend support to the idea that at least part of it was used for agriculture. However, the process of melting everything to slag might have actually made certain ores easier (or harder) to access, causing some kind of crust upheaval -- again, this depends upon Wellakhit geology, something we *really* don't know about.

I'm not so sure about the idea that the average Wellakhit is afraid of magic, and would decline wizardry if faced with it, but that's more of a feeling than a fact. I could, however, see it this way -- 'commoners' might hide wizardry, because what better way to assassinate a wizard than by being a wizard oneself? Imagine an uprising or revolution in which commoners' magic fought royal magic. Perhaps the royal faction has a way of keeping track of the non-royal practitioners and making sure they don't overstep the boundaries of the imposed monarchy?

Also: I would love to see something about religion/belief systems, or even just about the Wellakhit wizardly idiom. Talk about the Aethyrs! :)